GCSE Results 2019/20
Another ‘unique’ Results Day at St Margaret’s CE Academy
At Margaret’s often witnesses scenes of great jubilation at this time of year. Students anxiously tear open the envelopes containing their results, and far more often than not, they break out with broad smiles or whoops of joy when they see what they have achieved. Staff, too, join in the celebration as another generation of students achieve highly in their external exams.
From that point of view, today is no different. Many of our Year 11 students are today celebrating another bumper crop of exam results, with large numbers achieving the grades they need to progress to a Sixth Form or to an apprenticeship. Mr Brierley, Principal, commented: “It is fantastic to see so many of our students beaming broadly and celebrating the fruits of their labours – and it is immensely gratifying for our staff too, all of whom have worked so hard to give each student the best possible outcomes at the end of their compulsory education. We’re deeply proud of the fact that so many of our students are now choosing to stay on into our Sixth Form too, as we begin our enrolment today”.
But from every other point of view, today is proving to be very different from a ‘normal’ Results Day. The boys in Year 11 were still invited into school to collect their results, but they had to queue in a socially-distanced manner – eventually receiving their results outside the school building, not inside it. And of course, the students were collecting exam results for exams they never sat, thanks to the restrictions brought in to combat Covid-19. As Mr Brierley put it: “the virus may be small, but it’s certainly cast a big shadow over our two Results Days this year”.
Of course there has been national controversy about how best to award grades for exams that were never taken. The Principal welcomed the Government’s decision to use the grades teachers had estimated, pointing out that individual teachers are best-placed to say how much their pupils have learnt in each subject.
But for now, we are all keen to ensure that St Margaret’s students rightly take their place centre-stage.
“Our Year 11s have achieved so much during their time here, and we are immensely proud of the contribution they’ve made to our wonderful St Margaret’s family”.
